John Ware bends, grabs, reads, stuffs, carries, checks and double-checks eight hours a day, five days each week.
Ware, 56, has been doing all this for 30 years, and he doesn`t plan to retire soon.
A Postal Service letter carrier, Ware delivers mail to apartments in three Gold Coast high-rises on the 1300 blocks of North Astor Street and North Ritchie Court.
His workday starts blocks away on the second floor of the Ft. Dearborn post office, 540 N. Dearborn St.
There, at 5:30 a.m., he punches the time clock and walks to a 4-foot-wide countertop. Above the counter is a shelf-or case, as he calls it-consisting of 50 or more boxes, each one labeled with a specific area on his route.
For the next four hours he stands and sorts mail.
The postal service uses computers and mechanized systems to sort the mail before Ware receives it. But even a computer can`t sort the mail on his route as well as he can, Ware says. ”I am the computer.”
With a cartload of mail at his side, Ware grabs a letter, reads the address, and stuffs it in the appropriate box, double-checking his work as he goes.
As soon as one cartload is sorted, a coworker will roll another over, and the sorting continues.
”People think we read their magazines. We don`t have time to read anyone`s mail,” he says.
It takes about four seconds for Ware to properly place each piece of mail. ”My arms don`t get tired; I`m used to it,” he says.
Letter carriers don`t count the number of pieces they sort. They measure mail in feet, he says.
On a typical day, Ware will sort and deliver a stack of mail 17 feet high. During such busy holiday seasons as Christmas, the volume may grow to 35 feet.
More than 60 other letter carriers also are sorting their route`s letters. Large envelopes and magazines, called flats, are being sorted too.
Ware points to two letters he has just grabbed from the cart.
”This letter has an apartment number on it: 1502. But this letter doesn`t have an apartment number,” he says. If a substitute letter carrier is working Ware`s route-which happens about once a week-he wouldn`t be able to sort the second letter without referring to a printed list of the names and complete addresses of residents on the route. This is called directing the mail.
Directing slows the sorting process, and it can delay the delivery of the letter by one day, he says. Fortunately, Ware knows most of the names and addresses on his route without checking. After all, he has had this route for 10 years.
The mail-sorting activities at Ft. Dearborn are fast-paced, but that`s the sort of work Ware likes best, he says. ”There`s lots of camaraderie here. It`s a place where I enjoy working. You get to know the other letter carriers. They`re friendly. It`s just like family.”
He could retire now, Ware says, but ”as long as I`m healthy and feeling well, I won`t retire. As long as I`m productive, I plan on being here.”
Before leaving the station and heading out on his route, Ware will have sorted about five bags of mail, each weighing 40 pounds or more.
By 10 a.m., Ware`s sorting is complete, and the second phase of his job begins.
He puts one bag of mail into his car and drives to the 1340 N. Astor St. high-rise. After parking in the building`s garage, he takes the bag and walks to 1335 N. Astor St., which has 48 mail patrons. It has ”banks of boxes,” or a vertical series of mailboxes that open from the top. He opens one bank at a time and feeds the mail into the boxes.
By the time Ware is finished with the first bag, a co-worker has delivered more of the sorted mail to Ware in the building`s lobby. During the day the coworker will deliver the rest of the mail to Ware.
The next building on his route, 1310 N. Ritchie Ct., has a mailroom. ”A special key is needed to open the mailroom, and only postal service employees have the key,” he says.
Once inside the mailroom, he opens the bag and spreads the sorted letters and flats across a countertop. Standing behind 110 mailboxes, he feeds the appropriate mail into each mailbox.
The last high-rise on Ware`s route is 1340 N. Astor St. ”That`s the biggest one, with 220 residences,” he says.
Ware says the people on his route rarely complain about their mail service, although he admits that occasionally some letters are placed in the wrong mailbox by mistake. ”With the volume of mail we have, we never said we were perfect,” he notes.
As a courtesy to the patrons on his route, Ware takes letters that have been left at the building`s management office or with the front desk and mails them from the Ft. Dearborn Post Office.
During the day Ware often meets passersby and neighborhood residents. ”I like getting out and meeting people. I meet just ordinary people. Basically, I run into the same people each day,” he says.
But occasionally something unusual happens. He once saw John Belushi while ”Blues Brothers” was being filmed in the neighborhood. ”But I didn`t have the time to sit around and watch,” he says.
About five years ago, when he was going into the 1340 building, he saw that the doorman was having a stroke. ”I laid the guy down and told the office personnel to call the paramedics. I didn`t know what else to do, so I kept his feet elevated. When the paramedics got there, they said my alertness and quick action helped to save the doorman`s life.”
Once in a while residents on his route will do him a favor. ”If they`re going to the store, they may bring me back a pop or something if it`s really hot,” Ware says.
When lunchtime comes, Ware sometimes buys a sandwich from a local store and eats it in the mailroom where he is working. ”There`s really no restaurant nearby, so that gives me a chance to watch what I eat,” he says.
To stay fit, Ware jogs about three days a week around the hilly areas near his Country Club Hills home. ”I need a cardiovascular boost to keep the old ticker in shape,” he says.
Married with two grown children, Ware graduated in 1953 from Tilden High School, on Chicago`s Southwest Side. After working at a Loop drugstore soda fountain for six years, he applied for work at the U.S. Postal Service and the Chicago Transit Authority. ”The Postal Service called me first, so I started working for them,” he says.
Ware has a 40-hour work week, with Sundays and one alternating day off. He first entered the postal service as a substitute letter carrier. In 1961 he started his first regular route, delivering mail to Rogers Park residents.
Ware is one letter carrier who has had good luck with the neighborhood dogs. ”In my area people look after their dogs and keep them on a leash,” he says. ”They don`t let them run loose.”
He does remember one incident in Rogers Park, however:
”I went up onto the porch to put the mail in the box. When I turned around, I saw a big bulldog sitting and looking up at me.
”My heart stopped. I thought this dog was going to bite me. I started easing toward the gate, and the dog walked beside me. I eased out of the gate and closed it.” Ware hasn`t had a close encounter with a dog since.
